My previous post brought to light complaints — mostly from ex-readers of this blog — regarding my propensity for lengthy, boring, unfocused, and ‘did I mention boring?’ posts. Well, as I’m about to embark on yet another NaNoWriMo journey, it will seem as if their desperate cries for lesser content will have finally been heard.

Yup, next month will likely feature shorter and less frequent posts..

The above, by the way, is yet another scene from my favorite Big Island route; Saddle Road. All of the photos contained therein are from there. All two photos. That’s right, only two photos in this post.

. . . and six variations with different post-processing. Like, for instance, this . . .

. . . and this . . .

The small versions offered up by WP don’t do the photos justice but, as usual, you can click on the photo and a larger version will open up in another window or tab. Or, you can go to the SmugMug Gallery HERE and you can examine the photos in any size up to full.

Anyway, short, uninteresting, boring quick reads . . . it’s what the Internet wants and in November, the Internet will be happy. Maybe. Maybe I will post my writing as I go, but even then, those posts will be password-protected and if history repeats itself, about four people will ask for the password and read the fiction. Them be the people who usually don’t mind a few extra words. Or, at least, they have not made their feelings known otherwise.

Truth be told, my output has dropped considerably from a few years ago. It dropped both in frequency and length. That’s right, I used to write even longer posts. For example, THIS and THIS flowers posts and THIS travel post. Especially that travel post.

“Why is that? Why are you now less productive” you ask.

Well, Bob, it’s the election. Not only am I scared for our future, but had I a soul, it would be all sapped out . . . and I don’t even follow much of the circus. A few ears ago I wrote about the inequality and influence of money in politics, and this election will top out at $6,600,000,000 ($6.6 billion) a large chunk of which is contributed by a very small number of very rich families.

When I read about the candidates, when I read about the parties, and most of all when I read about the people supporting one or the other deeply flawed candidate, why, my world starts to look like this . . .

You can’t write in that world. You can’t create in that world. You can hardly live in that world. It holds no hope, it holds no humanity, it holds no promise. The best we can hope for is that it settles into something like this . . .

One minor bright spot of this election cycle are initiatives like the following:

Some readers might recall my rant from a few years ago when a similar measure failed. Various religious groups lobbied against Death With Dignity then, and they are at it again, but this time, according to polling, 70% of voters are in favor of it. The other 30% are people I disparage in the above-linked rant.

Of course, we no longer live in Colorado. We live here, in Hawaii, where efforts to pass a Death With Dignity law have been ongoing for the past 20 years. Current measures were stalled in committees and will not be considered in this session. So much for Hawai’i being a liberal state and Colorado being a conservative state. Of course, it’s not strictly a liberal or conservative issue. It’s a religious issue, and as most religions are essentially death cults, their main goal, their raison d’être, is to ensure the suffering of humanity. I wrote about death HERE.

I firmly believe the bulk of humanity’s progress came from — and continues to come from — the effort of the few individuals dragging the rest of humanity along with them; a humanity essentially incapable of enjoying life, of respecting others, of striving for ‘better’ . . . they sure are good at making others suffer, though.

I mean, it’s “It is distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures. With a budget around $245 million, it is the most expensive Bond film and one of the most expensive films ever made.”

This is a perfect example of the adage “you can cover shit with gold, but it’s still shit covered in gold.” I just made that up, but feel free to use it.

My overall opinion of the movie is “no excitement, no suspense, no thrill, no engagement with the characters as they move as ghosts in a landscape devoid of distinguishing features in pursuit of a plot so trite and puerile as to be obvious within the first ten minutes of the film.”

Well, maybe 20 minutes. The first ten minutes had me wanting to throw a shoe at the television screen. Except my shoes were across the room and it’s not my television. Mindless action. Improbable mindless action. Pointless improbable mindless action . . . I could go on.

The ten minutes after that were there primarily for Bond to go all Trump-like on Monica Bellucci. Literally, he forces himself on her and she appropriately responds with heavy breathing and the half-hearted attempt to conceal the information he wanted . . . which was a name he, Bond . . . James Bond, already had. That’s it; she was then absent from the rest of the movie.

Then comes a bunch of more pointless improbable mindless action, a new love interest who, after a very brief exposure to her, is the reason Bond turns a new leaf.

Holy crap on a cracker! I done lost husbands point for this one, I tell you, since I picked the movie for both of us to watch. I mean, it used to be Bond films were on par with Tom Cruise films; they will not broaden your horizon, make you smarter, or better your life, but they their level of suck is a known quantity and sits squarely in the “tolerate” range.

That is no longer the case. This film serves the concept of entertainment as well as a soggy tomato sandwich serves the concept of dining.

Oh, the credit song also sucked.

The above tree photo was composed so as to have the blue sky provide the background for the foliage. That composition lets me do this:

And this:

With that, I think I will call it quits for this post. Instead, I’ll turn my attention to the monthly bills, drinking coffee, and snacking.

Meanwhile, for them voting next week, contemplate THIS. Goodnight and sleep tight.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website. Could be they also torture small mammals.

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Please, if you are considering bestowing me recognition beyond commenting below, refrain from doing so. I will decline blogger-to-blogger awards. I appreciate the intent behind it, but I prefer a comment thanking me for turning you away from a life of crime, religion, or making you a better person in some other way. That would mean something to me.

18 Responses to Stuff, more stuff, and Spectre

I think the idea and first principle of blogging is to please and satisfy one’s self theres no compulsion for anybody to follow and then make derogatory remarks. If you don’t like what you see, just bugger off and find something you do!
So on that note ej go ahead and bore us as much as you like and heres a big smile just for you XD

Wait . . . I seem to remember complaints about too many photos, too many words, and other stuff.

But, let me be clear. I’m not saying they make derogatory remarks; they just complain. In a way, it can sometimes be flattering because it hints at them wanting to read my stuff and wanting to see my photos, but just not having time.

At one point during the evolution of this blog, I would take a long and meandering blog post and split it up into individual posts, each encompassing one subject.

Still, that just meant that readers now had four or five separate posts to read as opposed to one long one. I don’t see why that is any better, but there you have it.

Also, you will note that smilies don’t translate on these comments. There’s a box you can check that keeps them devil’s spawn smilies from resolving themselves. All you get is the alphanumeric. That I can handle because I imagine it as the writer making a typing error.

I hope you’re right about the 70% support for the End of Life Options act. I’d give almost anything to get it passed before I get much older since I can’t imagine moving to Oregon. It absolutely infuriates me that people would deny me the right because of their religious beliefs. But I’d better stop right here or start a major rant.

I don’t know…. I like to read your posts., long or short… but , I used to have the time to read at least 100 posts a day, but since last year, I could only read about 50 max, even less these days. ( and it’s because I actually read the posts, and click /watch the darn videos, lol )

I have my laptop everywhere I go…. even at baskins and Robbins where I worked. When business was slow, I ‘d spend my time reading…. ( I was working the night shift up to 10 PM, when a” customer ” came in at 9 and robbed the store….. including my laptop…. good thing he didn’t do anything bad, like killing me ….. eh, I don’t know if that info’s relevant, ha ha ha .. the point is, I read whenever and wherever I can )

Its all about timing, if a post is there for me to read over my morning cup of tea then I’m likely to read it, sometimes I have to choose between multiple posts and then it’s often the title that will help sway my decision, I only occasionally get the opportunity to catch up on missed posts.
If only I could sell everything, move to a distant tropical island with nothing to do all day but exercise and think about writing a book!

Well, I think blogging is first and foremost for the blogger…and he or she should say/blog whatever they want to…and however long or short they want to…photos or no photos, etc.

I enjoy your posts! Your writing and your photos are something I look forward to every night when I can finally sit down and read blogs. And when you share your opinions or songs or links or what’s going on in the world…you always give me something to think about and/or enjoy. So please keep blogging the way YOU want to blog!

I have lost a few blogger-readers in the past year…3 of them quit blogging due to health issues…so we keep up through e-mail and phone and texts. A few others are just not blogging as much. And probably a few more don’t like what I blog, so I’m not seeing them visit anymore. Oh well.

I just finished watching the 4th and final season of Banshee. There was a lot of shooting and things blowing up and fighting in the final season…so it was a good escape for me…as my life does not have shooting or blowing things up or fighting. :-)

I had never heard of Banshee . . . looking it up, it’s Cinemax, so I’ll have to see if Amazon or Netflix carries it. Shooting and things blowing up are a good escape . . . Perhaps I’ll write more of both into my stories.

Speaking of music, ever heard of Enigma?
I used to listen to them a lot when writing. Just made a playlist in preparation for November.

But, when I’m in the mood to watch a little shooting and blowing things up . . .

Sorry, have had a very busy spell, racing around doing stuff, and other than zooming for
Wild Earth every day, haven’t had too much time for the computer at all. I do try to read your posts, which I never find “boring,” but sometimes I fall a bit behind! Life will settle down and be a bit calmer, I hope, once Trump wanders off, muttering imprecations and trying to blame everyone for his terrible behavior. Hope you two are well, relaxed, and enjoying life! Looking for the new NaNoWriMo story (or stories). And thanks for the warning about Spectre.

Not to worry. Me, I’m slacking off in a number of areas. I only half kid when I say the election is a drain on me and people in general. I hear it from all sorts of circles and even heard of a few authors who missed their deadlines because of it.

We are well, if not exactly “relaxed”, but then I don’t expect anyone is (it kind of feels like we are at the edge of a precipice and the edge is slowly crumbling away as we try to escape).

I have managed to set up an Enigma (a band/musical group) playlist for my November effort, so that’s a positive thing. Still avoiding thinking what I’m going to write about, but I’ll dive in as usual on November 1.

A few years ago I had an obsession with collection all the state quarters and putting them in a “special” album. I have all of them but I never look at it any more. I feel the same way with Bond movies. I have to see them but only once, even if they suck. Years of analysis has not changed me.